twangster

I asked the Voom person about expectations for Starlink in Alaska. I received an answer suited for the pre-Starlink days, mountains and being too far North, blocking the satellites, mountains everywhere, etc.

I suspect me moving cabins messed them up. I have to give my old cabin # at breakfast.

They said no.

Talked with my cabin attendant. Upgraded bathroom amenities for CAS have to be requested.

Had a talk with Voom specialist. They are replacing the wifi infrastructure on board in September moving from Meru to Cisco. Serenade he said was already done.

MDR lunch menu

Enrichment talk was okay. Glad I sat through it to learn a few things about the Caymans but if I had missed it it wouldn't have been a major loss.

Enrichment Lecture happening now...

Probably not worth it. Pics are uploading pretty good except with my cabin door closed. The sunrise pics were uploaded moments after I took them on the forward outdoor deck. Took a few seconds each.

My phone.

Nice chat with our Loyalty Ambassador just now. Vernon is such a nice guy. There were around 140 crystal blocks awarded this cruise. Vernon wanted guests to board the ship and find their blocks waiting for them so he stayed up until 1am the night before turn around to get it done. He has a sample of the new style blocks on board. Old and new style. Rear Side I like the new style. After the 140 distributed this cruise there are around 200 of the old style on board. He leaves early June for vacation and he's not sure when the old style will run out.

I logged into one of the ship computers. The upload speed is a little better. I noticed a different public IP address. On other ships I've experienced load balancing across the multiple Starlink antennas on a session basis. On Radiance they appear to be allocating different areas of the ship, or different subnets, or different logins to different Starlink antennas yielding a different public IP address. Logging back in on my phone it's another address different from my cabin and the ship computer. So they aggregating the bandwidth across multiple Starlink antennas but are doing it differently from another ship. Maybe they are trying different approaches to see what yields the best user experience.

I've read reports that Voom works best at the Voom computer area on deck 7. I suspect that because there is a Meru access point on top of the desk area. Top speeds are not any faster, it's just a more reliable signal.

Voom pricing onboard

Looks like I lost count last night. 7 of 6 drink coupons used.

Diamond Concierge hours

DL Spread Pretty much the same as the CL spread:

Look ma! No chair hogs.

Radiance has a unique piece of art hanging in the Centrum compared to her sisters.

Deck 12 above Centrum

Someone needs golf lessons

Twangster sunrise/sunset camera tip: Most smartphones and a lot of cameras try to average the exposure. This can lead to blown out sunrise and sunset pictures. If you tap and hold it locks focus and brings up an exposure slider. On Android slide left, on iPhone its a vertical slider IIRC so slide down This reduces the overexposure.